TRAN COMMITTEE CALLS FOR STRONGER EU BUDGET FOR INFRASTRUCTURE AND CEF
On 24 February, the European Parliament’s Transport and Tourism Committee (TRAN) adopted its draft opinion on the future Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for 2028–2034.
TRAN takes an ambitious position, proposing to €85.05 billion (in constant prices) for the next Connecting Europe Facility for the 2028–2034 period covering both transport and energy components. This is significantly above the European Commission’s proposal of €72.25 billion, while the Committee of Budgets has suggested €80.62 billion.
TRAN considers that the proposed allocation for transport under CEF, amounting to €51.5 billion, although significantly higher than in the current programming period, remains insufficient to meet the Union’s infrastructure objectives. The Committee also expressed concerns regarding the structure of the future EU budget, in particular the envisaged creation of a large fund financing National and Regional Partnership Plans.
According to TRAN, this approach could create uncertainties for the financing of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T), therefore calling for clearer earmarking to ensure that funding for national TEN-T sections is explicitly safeguarded within these plans. TRAN recalled that Member States are bound by legally established TEN-T completion deadlines, notably 2030 for the core network and 2040 for the extended core network.